Friend
by Rocksalt Rifle
Summary: In this world, they needed all the friends they could get. Fullmetal Alchemist/Supernatural fusion.


Roy hesitated in the doorway of the living room. Ed was sprawled out on the couch, dead asleep. Al had dragged him in, unconscious, asked Roy to watch him, and drove off all in the span of ten minutes. Roy had very little idea of what was going on, but he couldn't turn the Elrics away. He owed them too much.

It was nearly a year and a half since he last saw the brothers and very little had changed since then. Roy had eyes and ears everywhere - between him and Tom they had most of the roadhouses and hunter hot spots covered, and he kept up with Singer up in Dakota. The boys trusted him more than any other hunter, and Roy knew that Singer was a good man. Better than him, at any rate.

He wondered why Al chose here to drop Ed off. He hadn't questioned Al - Ed wasn't hurt badly, just a few scratches and bruises, but he was so deeply asleep Roy had to check to make sure that he was breathing. With very little else to do but watch the shallow breathing of an unconscious Elric, Roy pulled out a cryptid bestiary and started trying to figure out what would put someone into such a slumber.

It was going on early evening when Ed finally started to stir. He twitched a moment and then suddenly threw himself off of the couch, slamming into the coffee table and hitting the floor flailing. Roy jumped up, but Ed sat up confused, still flailing. "-FUCKING LITTLE SHIT TRY THAT AGAIN-!" Ed roared, then stilled, looked around in confusion. "-the hell AM I?" His gaze fell across Roy, and if anything got more confused. "Mustang?"

"Good to see you conscious," Roy said dryly.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ed asked, bewildered.

"I live here."

Ed looked around again. "This isn't White Hall."

"No." Roy shook his head. "It isn't. You were at White Hall?"

Ed pulled himself to his feet, sat back on the couch and ran a hand through his hair, clearly disoriented. "I don't like the faerie folk," he gritted, pushing his sleeve up to inspect his arm. "Little fucker BIT me, and that's the last thing I remember. How did I get here?"

"Alphonse brought you," Roy said, quietly amused and relieved that Ed seemed normal. "He asked me to keep an eye on you and then left without a word."

Immediately Ed started clapping himself, looking for his cell phone. When he couldn't locate it he swore violently then stood up, looked around and headed out of the living room. Roy stood up. "What are you doing?"

"I'm using your phone," Ed called from the kitchen, already dialing. After a moment he grunted, hung the phone up in disgust, then dialed again. "Pick up your damn phone!" he yelled into the receiver, then dropped the phone back on its hook.

Roy was leaning in the doorway to the kitchen. "Are you going to tell me what's going on?" He watched Ed move, noted the slight limp and the wear to him and shook his head. "Hunt gone bad?"

"Worse than ever," Ed grunted, heading toward his fridge. He opened it and started picking through the selection before pulling out a beer. He waved it at Roy. "You mind if I?"

"Make yourself at home," Roy said.

"Haven't seen you in, what. Almost two years?" Ed tossed the bottle cap on the table and drank half the bottle without coming up for air. "See you're doing well for yourself. Right side of the law thing agreeing with you?"

"Has its perks," Roy said.

"Dad thought you were an idiot," Ed said, leaning back against the counter.

"Your father was very strong-willed." He wasn't fond of the direction this conversation was taking. "Both of you are very much like him."

Ed gave Roy a startled look, then looked away. There was something in his eyes that told Roy he didn't quite have the whole story on something, but that would come in time. "It's good to see you again," he said finally, quietly, taking another sip of the beer.

Roy swallowed against a dry throat, remembered Al's frantic, panicked phone call months ago, Alphonse practically in tears and somehow managed a smile. "Indeed."


End file.
